Look around you. Chances are, there’s a BiC Cristal ballpoint pen among your odds and ends. Since 1950, it has far outsold the Rubik’s Cube and even the iPhone, and yet, it’s one … ...

The shoddy ballpoint pen had become a symbol of China's "big but not strong" manufacturing, a situation that Beijing has tried hard to change. China makes about 38 billion ballpoint pens a year ...

Ballpoint pen is not my only medium, it's just the one I'm currently trying to master. 'At this point in my life I'm proficient with chalk, pencil, color pencil, pastels, oils and acrylics.

In Argentina, where Biro began mass producing his ballpoint pens his birthday – 29 September – is celebrated as Inventor’s Day. Biro died in the country in Buenos Aires in 1985, aged 86.

Ballpoint pens have a tiny ball made of brass, steel, or tungsten carbide as their writing tip. A compartment called the ink reservoir holds the ink, and a narrow tube links the reservoir to the ball.